Hierarchical privacy settings for comments and markups in a shared document

Abstract

A user selects a markup and a privacy setting user input mechanism is displayed. User actuation of the mechanism, setting of privacy level, is received and a hierarchical privacy level of the selected markup is set. The hierarchical privacy level is stored for the selected markup.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A document management system, comprising:
 a collaboration system that provides collaboration user input mechanisms that are actuated to perform collaboration functions on a shared document; and   a privacy component that displays a privacy setting user input mechanism that is actuated to set a restrictive privacy level, of a plurality of settable restrictive privacy levels, for a markup corresponding to the shared document.   
     
     
         2 . The document management system of  claim 1  wherein the privacy component comprises:
 a privacy level setting component that receives a markup input indicative of user selection of the markup. 
 
     
     
         3 . The document management system of  claim 2  wherein the privacy component comprises:
 a hierarchical privacy level calculation engine that receives a privacy level indication, indicative of the restrictive privacy level set for the selected markup, and calculates a calculated privacy level for the selected markup and assigns the calculated privacy level to the selected markup. 
 
     
     
         4 . The document management system of  claim 3  wherein the privacy component comprises:
 a credential accessing component that accesses hierarchical information corresponding to the user setting the restrictive privacy level for the selected markup, the hierarchical privacy level calculation engine calculating the calculated privacy level based on the hierarchical information accessed. 
 
     
     
         5 . The document management system of  claim 4  wherein the credential accessing component accesses hierarchical information corresponding to users related to the shared document that has the corresponding selected markup, the hierarchical privacy level calculation engine calculating the calculated privacy level based on the hierarchical information accessed. 
     
     
         6 . The document management system of  claim 5  wherein the hierarchical information corresponding to the user comprises one of a user role for the user, the user's relationship to the shared document, and a location where the user resides in a credential hierarchy. 
     
     
         7 . The document management system of  claim 6  wherein the hierarchical information corresponding to the users related to the shared document comprises a role of each of the users, each user's relationship to the shared document, and a location where each of the users reside in a credential hierarchy. 
     
     
         8 . The document management system of  claim 3  wherein the privacy component displays the privacy setting user input mechanism that is actuated to set the restrictive privacy level for a group of markups corresponding to the shared document. 
     
     
         9 . The document management system of  claim 3  and further comprising:
 a messaging system, the privacy component generating a share user input mechanism corresponding to the selected markup, the share user input mechanism being actuated to identify a recipient and mode of delivery for the selected markup, the privacy component calculating whether the recipient has credentials that meet the restrictive privacy level set for the selected markup, the messaging system sending the selected markup to the recipient if the recipient has credentials that meet the restrictive privacy level set for the selected markup. 
 
     
     
         10 . The document management system of  claim 10  wherein, in response to actuation of the privacy component calculating that the recipient has credentials that meet the restrictive privacy level, the messaging system generates a message that includes markup content of the selected markup, corresponding content of the shared document and a link to the shared document and sends the message to the recipient. 
     
     
         11 . A document management system, comprising:
 a collaboration system that generates document accessing user input mechanisms that are actuated to access a shared document with corresponding markups that have a restrictive privacy level set;   a privacy component that accesses credential data corresponding to the requesting user and that identifies, as displayable markups, any markups for which a requesting user has credentials that meet the restrictive privacy level, and that identifies, as hidden markups, any markups for which a requesting user does not have credentials that meet the restrictive privacy level; and   a user interface component that displays the shared document, making the displayable markups accessible to the requesting user, without making the hidden markups accessible to the requesting user.   
     
     
         12 . The document management system of  claim 11  wherein the privacy component comprises:
 a privacy level setting component that generates a privacy level setting user input mechanism that is actuated to set the restrictive privacy level, for a corresponding markup, to one of a plurality of tiered privacy levels. 
 
     
     
         13 . The document management system of  claim 12  wherein the privacy level setting user input mechanism is actuated to set the restrictive privacy level to one of the plurality of tiered privacy levels that are tiered based on user credentials. 
     
     
         14 . The document management system of  claim 13  wherein the user credentials that are used to tier the plurality of tiered privacy levels comprise user roles in the document management system. 
     
     
         15 . The document management system of  claim 13  wherein the user credentials that are used to tier the plurality of tiered privacy levels comprise user relationships to the shared document in the document management system. 
     
     
         16 . The document management system of  claim 13  wherein the collaboration system displays a share user input mechanism, corresponding to a given markup, that is actuated to identify a recipient of a message based on the given markup, and further comprising:
 a privacy level calculation component that accesses credential information for the recipient to determine whether the recipient has credentials that meet the restrictive privacy level. 
 
     
     
         17 . The document management system of  claim 16  and further comprising:
 a messaging system that, in response to the privacy level calculation component determining that the recipient meets the restrictive privacy level of the given markup, generates a message including content of the given markup, content of the shared document that relates to the given markup, and a link to the shared document and sends the message to the recipient. 
 
     
     
         18 . A method, comprising:
 receiving a user input accessing a given markup on a shared document;   displaying a privacy level setting input mechanism for the given markup;
 receiving actuation of the privacy level setting input mechanism, 
 identifying a restrictive privacy level, of a plurality of selectable restrictive privacy levels; 
   associating the identified restrictive privacy level with the given markup; and   restricting subsequent access to the given markup based on the identified restrictive privacy level.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  wherein restricting subsequent access comprises:
 receiving a subsequent user input accessing the given markup; and
 calculating whether a user associated with the subsequent user input has a privacy level that meets the restrictive privacy level associated with the given markup; and 
 
 providing the user with access to the given markup based on the calculation. 
 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein the plurality of selectable restrictive privacy levels comprise tiered privacy levels based on user roles and wherein calculating comprises:
 accessing a user role for the user and calculating the privacy level for the user based on the accessed user role.